The present invention relates to an apparatus for heat setting and winding one or more strands of yarn.
For many years, it has been desired to have the flexibility to heat set and wind any number of yarn strands simultaneously, wherein the quantity of yarn treated is solely dependent on the manufacturer's production requirements and not on the capacity of the equipment. In such a process, it is particularly desirable to be able to give the yarn strands a superior heat set and to adjust the tension at which each strand of yarn is wound so that it can be packaged with a predetermined tension. Such tension adjustment capability enables different types of yarn to be wound simultaneously.
It has also been desired to design a device having one drive means, which will simultaneously wind strands of yarn onto small spools and large spools in a satisfactory manner. It has been known to operate a plurality of individual winders to simultaneously wind a plurality of yarn strands. However, these individual winders are powered by separate drive means. In operations for simultaneously winding yarn onto large and small spools with one drive unit, difficulties have been encountered because when the large and small spools are rotated by the common drive unit, each of these spools will wind yarn at a different speed. More specifically, the larger spool will wind up a given length of yarn more rapidly than the smaller spool because of their different circumferences. Therefore, if the smaller spool is rotated so that it winds yarn at proper speeds, the yarn being wound by the larger spool may encounter high tension and snap. If the larger spool is rotated to wind its yarn at the proper speed, the yarn being wound by the smaller spool will become slack and may become entangled with equipment or other yarn strands. When using such devices, it is often necessary to rewind the yarn onto a spool with an individual winder to obtain the desired tension. It has therefore been desired to develop a winding unit which has the capability of simultaneously winding yarn onto different size spools without the above-mentioned problems.